Composing a Future: Sarasota Orchestra Tunes Up for its Next 75 Years

Scott Ferguson | February 2024

On March 12, 1949, Florida West Coast Symphony Orchestra performed its first concert. The setting was the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium; the opening selection  was Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor — his “Unfinished Symphony.”

In March 2024 and throughout the 2023-2024 season, the beloved cultural institution will celebrate its 75^th anniversary. Known since 2008 as Sarasota Orchestra, it will continue its own unfinished symphony as its musical journey leads it toward a new Music Center, a new music director and new creative heights. 

“The 75th anniversary comes at a very interesting time for us,” says Sarasota Orchestra President and CEO Joseph McKenna. “I see it as a re-introduction of the Orchestra to the broader community and all the things we do. In addition to the anniversary of the Orchestra itself, the Sarasota Music Festival — our robust education program — will celebrate its 60th anniversary this coming June.”

Founded in 1964 by Paul Wolfe, the Orchestra’s fourth and longest-serving music director, the Sarasota Music Festival brings together world-class musicians and younger colleagues for an intensive three-week program of classes and performances.  

“I think what’s also quite remarkable is that we’re in the midst of a music director search,” says McKenna. “That in itself is exciting. But I also see the anniversary as a renaissance for the entire organization, especially in the ways we serve and provide for the community. Sarasota was a much different place in terms of population and daily life when the first concert was performed back in 1949, compared to what it is today.” 

The search for a new music director follows the untimely death at age 69 of Bramwell Tovey, an internationally renowned conductor who was named Sarasota Orchestra’s sixth music director in 2021 and was about to begin his tenure in 2022. As a counterpoint to the sad news, that same year the Orchestra announced its plans to purchase 32 acres of pastureland along Fruitville Road, just west of I-75. McKenna uses another art form as a metaphor for what the site represents. 

“The land is a canvas for the Orchestra to paint its future,” he says. “I think it provides an extraordinary opportunity. Fast-forward 50 years. I think people will say, ‘Wow! The Sarasota Orchestra Music Center is at the center of this region; it’s the heartbeat of the community.’ I imagine in time there will be cultural organizations that spring up east of us, but I view the location as the gateway and the welcome mat into Sarasota.”

Betsy Hudson Traba, who has served as the principal flutist for Sarasota Orchestra since 1993, agrees. 

 “The proximity to I-75 is huge,” she says. “There’s so much potential on that enormous plot of land. The vision is for much more than a concert hall. It’s going to be a campus, and it’s going to have trails and water features. The design of the building and the backstage area — there’s a whole labyrinth of things that go on in concert halls that no one ever sees. And I’m sure the musicians will have input that will go into making our hall a wonderful place to play and hear great music.”

Both Traba and McKenna stress the importance of community when they talk about the next home of Sarasota Orchestra. 

McKenna notes that “at the outset, the Orchestra board members said, ‘While we are leading the effort for a music center, we are doing it with a community intention. It’s not just about the Orchestra. How do we as leaders on the Orchestra board create a Music Center that is for the broader community and at the same time provides a home for the Orchestra?’ 

“When Schermerhorn Symphony Center opened in Nashville in 2006, they hadn’t built a concert hall prior to that,” McKenna explains. “I don’t think they’ll build another concert hall there for another hundred years. That’s how special these buildings are. They represent civic pride and service to the community. I’ve always said that once the building is here, people will say, ‘How did we do without it for so long? Look what it’s brought.’ And I think that’s really exciting.”

Traba is also enthusiastic about the plans. “Great concert halls like what we’re planning for Sarasota Orchestra are a marvel of engineering and acoustics. It will be a special place in a special environment. This community deserves that.”

The Orchestra currently divides its season among six venues, most notably Holley Hall in the Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center, the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall and the Sarasota Opera House. It has long sought a home of its own — designed and dedicated to the performance of acoustic music. Proposed sites for the new facility included Payne Park in downtown Sarasota and The Bay Park. The City of Sarasota rejected the first idea based on feedback from citizens who objected to such a large structure in the park. The bayfront location would have restricted the height of the concert hall to 90 feet, among other issues. 

The next stop was Fruitville Road. After a series of feasibility studies of the site and the approval of an initial concept plan by Sarasota County in 2022, the Orchestra sought zoning variations — such as allowing for the concert hall to reach a 110-foot height for optimum acoustics. The variations were approved by the County in April 2023, and the Orchestra completed its $14 million purchase of the 32-acre site.  

Plans for the Music Center include a 1,800-seat concert hall built specifically to showcase acoustic music — one of only four in Florida and the first on Florida’s Gulf Coast — a 700-seat flexible-use performance space, rehearsal and practice rooms, music storage and office space. 

In addition to being the ideal home for Sarasota Orchestra, the Music Center will also serve many of the nearly 30 smaller music organizations that face challenges in scheduling performance and rehearsal dates due to the limitations of the region’s existing arts and cultural infrastructure. The Music Center will also provide expanded space and increased opportunities for the growth of Sarasota Orchestra’s youth education programs. 

In July 2023, the Orchestra announced the selection of New Jersey-based Stages Consultants, headed by acoustician Damian Dora and theater planner Alec Stoll, as partners in the creation of the facility. McKenna explains why hiring them was the next movement in composing the Music Center symphony. 

“A lot of the early work is being shaped by acoustics and theater design. The next step will be to go through the process this spring to identify an architect. The architect works with the acoustician and theater planner to give the building its personality, without compromising its acoustics and overall function.”

Over the past few years, the Orchestra has learned from projects in other places. 

“We’ve been very disciplined. We’ve traveled to numerous other cities to visit organizations and their projects and asked, ‘What went well?’ and ‘What would you have done differently?’

“We’ve seen facilities where architecture was sort of the leading piece, and the reviews were mixed about the acoustics. The venues that put acoustics first have had excellent outcomes.” 

It’s possible that Sarasota Orchestra will celebrate its 80^th anniversary in 2029 in its new Music Center. But no matter when it happens, when the next music director raises the baton for the first concert there, it will signal a new era for classical music lovers in Sarasota and beyond.

“We have the potential to be one of the major American orchestras,” says Traba. “There’s that kind of support here. The people of this community built this Orchestra and they have supported it throughout its growth. And Sarasota has built a national and international reputation as an arts haven. We just need the space to grow. We need our own place. And then there will literally be no stopping us.”

McKenna believes that the importance to the community of Sarasota Orchestra and other arts organizations cannot be overstated.

“I think orchestras, youth orchestras and choirs are a phenomenal example of what the world needs more than ever,” he says. “Because if we continue to grow more tone deaf and less aware, then that’s not a world that any of us want to live in. I think the significance of Sarasota Orchestra on this 75th anniversary is that it is a beacon of hope for humanity. Our work and mission is more important today than it’s ever been in our entire history.”

For more information and tickets to the Sarasota Orchestra’s 75^th anniversary concerts and its plans for the new Music Center, visit SarasotaOrchestra.org.